Forensic Science: Crime on File #16 The Case of the Body on the Berth
You’re on a ship in the Caribbean. Because of a raging storm tossing the ship around for the past hour, you’ve been unable to sleep. All you can do is cling to your bed, to keep from being thrown all around your cabin.
Just as the storm is subsiding, there is a knock on your door. “Sorry to disturb you,” says Raymond Shannon, the ship’s First Officer. “Something terrible has happened! About an hour ago, before the storm hit us, I was hurrying along a dark passageway – and I almost tripped over a body lying there! It’s Henry Kruger, the millionaire – with a bullet in his forehead.”
“Why did it take you an hour to report it?” you ask.
“There was so much to do – with the storm coming up,” he replies. “I guess I should have left him where I found him, but I wasn’t thinking very clearly.
“I carried him into an empty cabin, put him on a berth, and locked the door. I didn’t have time to tell anyone. I still haven’t even told the Captain. Would you mind coming with me and looking at the body?”
You go with him until he stops at a door and unlocks it. Inside you see the body lying on the berth, faceup, the hands resting on the body as though in sleep, but with a bullet hole in the forehead. There are spots of blood on the carpet. You turn to Shannon. “Does anyone else have access to the cabin?”
“There are a couple of keys in the Captain’s quarters, but I know they’re still there. I have a master key to all the cabins, the only one we have, and that’s what I used to open this cabin.”
“I think you also have a master talent for lying!” you say. “You’d better tell me the truth.”
The Case of the Body on the Berth
You’re on a ship in the Caribbean. Because of a raging storm tossing the ship around for the past hour, you’ve been unable to sleep. All you can do is cling to your bed, to keep from being thrown all around your cabin.
Just as the storm is subsiding, there is a knock on your door. “Sorry to disturb you,” says Raymond Shannon, the ship’s First Officer. “Something terrible has happened! About an hour ago, before the storm hit us, I was hurrying along a dark passageway – and I almost tripped over a body lying there! It’s Henry Kruger, the millionaire – with a bullet in his forehead.”
“Why did it take you an hour to report it?” you ask.
“There was so much to do – with the storm coming up,” he replies. “I guess I should have left him where I found him, but I wasn’t thinking very clearly.
“I carried him into an empty cabin, put him on a berth, and locked the door. I didn’t have time to tell anyone. I still haven’t even told the Captain. Would you mind coming with me and looking at the body?”
You go with him until he stops at a door and unlocks it. Inside you see the body lying on the berth, faceup, the hands resting on the body as though in sleep, but with a bullet hole in the forehead. There are spots of blood on the carpet.
You turn to Shannon. “Does anyone else have access to the cabin?”
“There are a couple of keys in the Captain’s quarters, but I know they’re still there. I have a master key to all the cabins, the only one we have, and that’s what I used to open this cabin.”
“I think you also have a master talent for lying!” you say. “You’d better tell me the truth.”